“Their work is hopelessly unphotogenic. Someone sits at a table or lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling. Once in a while this person writes down seven lines, only to cross out one of them 15 minutes later, and then another hour passes, during which nothing happens. Who could stand to watch this kind of thing?”
Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel Prize-winning poet, in her Nobel lecture, explaining why no one makes films of the life of poets. Ms. Szymborska died Feb. 1st at age 88.

"The hand that puts fish on the saucer
has changed, too.
Something doesn’t start
at its usual time.
Something doesn’t happen
as it should. Someone was always, always here,
then suddenly disappeared
and stubbornly stays disappeared."
Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel Prize-winning poet, from "Cat in an Empty Apartment," translated by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak. Ms. Szymborska died February 1st at age 88.

“The lack of recognition for my accomplishments used to bother me, but you cannot cry over those things. There is no place for bitterness in singing. It works on the cords and ruins the voice. In his own good time, God brings everything right.”
Camilla Williams, considered to be the first African American woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company, died January 29th at age 92. See her obituary in the Los Angeles Times.